2026 Pride Parade, Nashville TN (my photo)

Cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50778151

2026 Pride Parade, Nashville TN (my photo)

Sunset over Nashville (my photo)

Cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47003541

A 12-person jury has been seated in the federal corruption trial of former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his ex-chief of staff Cade Cothren.

Lawyers late into the afternoon April 23 were still debating alternates for the jury, but the trial is expected to move forward April 24 with opening statements.

Casada and Cothren each face up to 20 years in prison for charges including bribery and money laundering tied to an alleged kickback scheme involving a fake political mailer company.

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New reports have begun to circulate among city lawmakers and planners that set the table for major housing reforms. Conclusions describe a city lacking sufficient supply and housing diversity, a problem attributed to limited and outdated zoning restrictions ripe for reform. City planners are expected to deliver two more major studies — a unified housing strategy and an ecological conservation report — as well as formal policy recommendations to the Metro Council in June.

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So much is going on in the world, but I think it’s important to take time to savor simple moments of pure pleasure — like watching state Rep. Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) complaining about people at the state Capitol wearing wires.

Y’all know that I am gleefully following the soap opera that is the Phoenix Solutions scandal. For those of you who haven’t been following, let me try to quickly bring you up to speed. Oh Lord, even that sentence makes me laugh. OK, back in the day, Republican Rep. Glen Casada was the state's House speaker. Casada was like if an oil slick and a used car salesman had a baby. He had an aide, Cade Cothren, who was like if the cocaine bear and Gavin McInnes had a baby and abandoned it before teaching it about good facial hair. Casada is all, “I will make my friends and enemies kneel before me on my quest for power.” Cothren’s out here dropping all kinds of racist and sexist slurs, and for reasons that have never been adequately explained, regularly calling Casada “daddy” and helping Casada on his quest.

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The upcoming season will feature eight Nashville premieres, including the following:

The Wiz - Sept. 23-28, 2025
The Outsiders - Oct. 14-19, 2025
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast - Nov. 4-16, 2025
Suffs – March 3-8, 2026
Back To The Future: The Musical - March 17-22, 2026
Some Like It Hot - April 21-26, 2026
Water for Elephants - May 12-17, 2026
Hamilton - June 17-28, 2026

The season will also include three limited return engagement presentations, including:

Les Misérables - Jan. 20-25, 2026
Six - Feb. 3-8, 2026
The Book of Mormon - June 2-7, 2026

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